


can we always be this close (forever and ever)

by anonlymous



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood-centric, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Introspection, M/M, No Angst, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 03:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20370004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonlymous/pseuds/anonlymous
Summary: Alec will never understand the appeal of what Magnus calls ‘film noir’, but Magnus is giving it his best attempt.





	can we always be this close (forever and ever)

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [sh_ficletinstruments](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sh_ficletinstruments) collection. 

> Title from Lover by Taylor Swift. Set at some point in the year between the wedding & flash forward.

Alec will never understand the appeal of what Magnus calls ‘film noir’, but Magnus is giving it his best attempt. He whispers trivia and explanations into Alec’s ear as the film plays: “This is Detective Sanders accepting a case, he's clever but an ass” or “Did I tell you I knew this director? An artistic genius, but so smug”. 

For his part, Alec is content to listen and stay tucked into Magnus’s side. It’s been a long week of frustrating meetings with the Consul and missions to fight off a particularly odious Drevak nest, but he gets to come home to this, the kind of bliss that he never dared to hope for. Not just the big things, a husband and a home they share, but also the small ones that bring him joy. Movie nights with his family. Gourmet popcorn. _Cuddling_. 

For so many years, he barely touched the people around him. His parents rarely spent time in the Institute, always occupied with Idris and meetings and their standing with the Clave, and even when they were – well, his mother said it herself: Shadowhunters aren’t big huggers. He was skittish with Jace, afraid that anything more than bumping fists or sparring would give away the shameful attraction he couldn’t get shake off no matter how much he wanted to. He’d give Isabelle hugs whenever she demanded them – it was impossible to deny his baby sister anything – but for years that was the extent of the comforting contact he gave or got.

He’d come to see himself the way everyone else did: stoic, serious, scowly, not someone prone to _snuggling_. But in the few months he’d known Magnus, he realized how very wrong he had been. He loved being close to Magnus, in every way possible. 

And now the casual touches were an inextricable part of their life. Magnus draping his legs over Alec’s lap, intertwining hands as they walked down the street, Alec lying with his head in Magnus’s lap to have his hair played with, little kisses on the neck and forehead and cheeks – it was constant, and intimate, and blissful. 

And this way of touching is one of his favorites. Alec is nestled into Magnus’s chest, resting his head in the crook of Magnus’s neck, occasionally pressing lips to his jaw or reveling in the soft kisses Magnus places on his hair. 

Around them, the movie Alec doesn’t understand drones on the tv, the fire crackles in the fireplace that Magnus insisted brings the loft character, and his siblings chatter away. Farther away, the world spins on. Snow falls in blankets on the city that never sleeps. There are, invariably, disasters Alec will have to clean up in the morning. The Clave continues its mission to drown him in paperwork. Mundanes laugh and cry and live, all the while ignorant of what exists in the shadows around them. 

For now, none of it matters. Alec is a bubble of warmth and comfort and Magnus. He is home.


End file.
